Toyota is bringing 100 Yaris GRMN hatches to the UK

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For being a tiny island in a big world, the UK doesn’t half get a good deal when it comes to performance cars.

Lots of them are tuned for right-hand drive when it would be far easier to keep them LHD and tell us to lump it (something many have done in the past). And in the case of hot hatches, we often get a blooming good quota of limited-run cars.

RenaultSport has been pretty good at sating Britain’s hot hatch needs in the past, and now Toyota’s getting in on the act: 100 of its 400 Yaris GRMNs will be right-hand driven and sold in the UK.

The GRMN, if you need a reminder, is Toyota’s riposte to the Ford Fiesta ST and RenaultSport Clio. Except it’s more hardcore than either: its 209bhp engine is a supercharged 1.8 like you’ll find in a Lotus Elise, while there’s a proper Torsen differential and tough Sachs suspension.

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Such special componentry – and limited numbers – naturally impact upon the price. It’s, um, £26,295. But if the prospect of a £26k Yaris gives you the heebie-jeebies, Toyota has announced a finance deal that breaks it down to £299 a month.

Fiesta STs have famously been available for half that, but this is still a decent deal. It’s Toyota GT86 money for something that’s tangibly more focused (really). Want the full story? We’ve driven the Toyota Yaris GRMN right here…

You’ve got until the end of October to order one, but place a deposit before September 27 and you’ll get an invite to Silverstone to a GRMN driving day. Tempted?

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